Glimpses of colonial society and the life at Princeton College  E-Book

William Paterson

• Herausgeber: Jazzybee Verlag
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 114

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

William Paterson is best known to history as the spokesman of "the New Jersey plan" in the Federal Convention, intended to preserve the rights of the smaller States against their larger sisters. His fame rests upon his administration as Governor of New Jersey, and his thirteen years as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court. An insight into his earlier years is afforded by the publication of "Glimpses of Colonial Society and the Life at Princeton College." These glimpses are given in a series of letters written by Paterson to his college friends, and by random letters written to him. Among these friends are John Macpherson, who fell in the assault of Quebec, Luther Martin, of Anti-Federalist fame, and Aaron Burr, who was graduated from Princeton in the class of 1772. With these letters are included some verses, chiefly in the style of Pope, intended for the Cliosophic Society of Princeton College, and a few scraps of old-time college songs. Abounding in classic allusion, passing readily upon occasion into Latin, quoting from Swift, Pope, Molière, and Horace, the compositions of this young law student illustrate the aristocracy of letters in that day. Although covering the years important in the political revolution of the Colonies, there is scarcely a reference to politics, or any prophecy of the public career so soon to be opened to this verbose essayist.

Leseprobe

Glimpses of Colonial Society

And the Life at Princeton College 1776 - 1773

WILLIAM PATERSON

Glimpses of Colonial Society, W. Paterson

Jazzybee Verlag Jürgen Beck

86450 Altenmünster, Loschberg 9

Deutschland

Front Cover: By Magneticcarpet - Self-published work by Magneticcarpet, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1108061

Printed by Bookwire, Voltastraße 1, 60486 Frankfurt/M.

ISBN: 9783849663834

www.jazzybee-verlag.de

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CONTENTS:

Introduction. 1

Part I. A Series of Letters giving much entertaining knowledge of Colonial Life  6

Part II. The Belle of Princeton – Betsey Stockton. 47

Part III. A SATIRE ON BETSEY'S COLLEGE SUITORS. 53

Part IV. Letters on the Subject of Love. 57

Part V. Letters by William  Paterson to Various Gentlemen. 62

Part VI. A Senior's Letter in 1786 to a Gentleman. 68

Part VII. Letters Concerning the  College Frolics of the Last Patroon of Rensselaerswyck and others  70

Part VIII. Songs Sung at the College of New Jersey in the 18th Century. 75

INTRODUCTION

THE following papers belonged to William Paterson,-a graduate of the College of New Jersey in 1763,-who succeeded the famous William Livingston as governor of New Jersey. The latter part of the eighteenth century saw no more brilliant figure than that of this youth, whose name deserves to rank high on the honor roll of illustrious Americans. Attorney-general of New Jersey during the Revolution, a framer of the Federal Constitution, senator of the United States from New Jersey, governor of the State, and at the time of his death an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, his life was one of remarkable achievement. Until a few years ago most of his correspondence was carefully preserved, and in his great oaken letter-chest one could find almost a complete record of his life from youth to old age: Essays prepared at the College of New Jersey in 1760; poems written on portions of old law-briefs, bearing dates when he served as a law-apprentice to Richard Stockton; his earliest and last love-epistles to Cornelia Bell, the fair Jersey girl who became his wife; packets of letters from a host of faithful friends, together with a tear-stained copy of the order for his tomb-stone.

William Paterson was born in County Antrim, Ireland, December 24, 1745. Shortly after his birth his parents emigrated to the New World, and for a period of about three years wandered here and there through the colonies before adopting a fixed abode. In the Paterson papers we find it recorded that they journeyed to the hamlet of Princetown in the springtime of 1750, and becoming so enamoured with the place, purchased one hundred acres of land in the centre of the settlement for a permanent home. Six years after the family became residents of this isolated spot on the King's Highway connecting New York City and Philadelphia, President Burr of the young College of New Jersey removed his students from Newark to Princeton,-to shield them from the temptations and allurements of the nearby city of New York.

William Paterson was matriculated in that institution in 1759 or 1760, receiving the degree of A.B. on September 27, 1763. Of his class-numbering nineteen graduates-twelve became ministers. As family tradition points to the fact that in his studies he was the most successful of that little band in college, so his subsequent career far eclipsed that of any of his fellow-students. With the exception of Tapping Reeve, who married the daughter of President Burr and afterwards acquired fame as an eminent Connecticut jurist, his latter life compared to theirs was like a star amidst an assembly of candle-lights. A youth of obscure parentage who by his industry and self-denial fitted himself to receive the highest honors of his State, he deserves one of the laurel-strewed places in the history of the early republic.

Standing before Nassau Hall to-day-once the most stately college-building in America-the mind grows retrospective. Drinking in that mystical, intangible something which seems to hallow its ancient walls, our imaginations lead us back to the Princeton of William Paterson's time,-a Princeton less flourishing than that which welcomed the tidings of the Revolution ten years later. The trees on the campus were then only young saplings. On the main thoroughfare there reposed a tavern, a general store, and several small tinkers' shops. Among the travelled gentry of the time the village was quite noted for its silversmiths, over one of whose doors hung the sign of Elias Boudinot, the father of Mrs. Richard Stockton, and nearby a member of the Paterson family followed the same trade. There the students loitered during recesses, running to meet the "Flying Wagons," as the great coaches from New York were called.

A hundred and fifty years have worked a great transition in Princeton College life. When William Paterson was a fourteen-year-old freshman the students were obliged to attend their classes in a style of dress prescribed by President Davies. Every youth during his first days at college was set to copying the long parchment of laws. Fines were imposed for absence from church or prayers. No student was permitted to keep his head covered within ten rods of the president and five rods of the tutors. Something of the formal, old-time collegiate manners can be learned from the fact that Samuel Stanhope Smith, when president, refused to speak to his own nephew for a period of six months, owing to the unfortunate young man's breach of etiquette in calling him "Doctor," instead of "Doctor Smith." The college course itself was not as extensive as the present curriculum of the average high school and lapses in spelling and grammar are to be found in the letters of the faculty as well as of the students.

Two years after leaving college, and still residing at his father's house in Princeton, William Paterson aided Robert Ogden, Luther Martin, Oliver Ellsworth, and Tapping Reeve in the formation of The Well-Meaning Club. The Stamp Act had just been passed by the British Parliament, and this forerunner of the Cliosophic Society could be said to be the outcome of the sentiment of patriotism.

In the year 1770 The Well-Meaning Club was reorganized under the name of the Cliosophic Society. Paterson was then living at New Bromley, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, but on his frequent visits to his home he acted as an amicus curiæ to the new organization of young literati. Under the name of "Lucius, The Occasional Reader," he wrote many poems for the little band of students which held its first meetings in one of the upper rooms of Nassau Hall. There he would resort of an evening when the candles were snuffed in the busy Stockton office, where he usually spent the daytime. We can picture him to ourselves standing in the centre of the floor, a slight, animated figure, reading his quaint "Belle of Princeton" to a jolly crowd of bewigged and beruffled students. Many laughs of appreciation must have been accorded to his witty innuendoes, aimed at the bugbears of their lives. "Mark the conduct of this tutor, the lyer Smith!" we hear his ardent voice ring out. With what derision his hearers listen to his recital of the actions of the detested Smith during a recent fire in a house near the college. Soon the society is in an uproar. "Great Paterson! We will leave it at his door in the morning," some daring spirit no doubt called out. Then, as the mirth grows louder, the stentorian tones of the Doctor fall upon the company, with his "To bed! To bed!"

"Lucius" was the pseudonym adopted by Richard Stockton in his charming correspondence with his wife; and it is a remarkable coincidence that both student and master should have used the same nom de guerre. Although Richard Stockton is credited with having given voice to the remark that Mr. Paterson was so "industrious he would someday be an honor to his profession," it is refreshing to know that he sometimes turned from his dull Blackstone to consort with Calliope. Old law-briefs still retain two of his early poems. On a deed giving John Moses possession of a tract of land are the following pastoral verses:

"How sweet to listen to a purling stream

Whose falling waters lull me in a dream.

How sweet to read, and if the fit should take

To court the muses by a sunny brake.

How soothing sad to hear yon turtledove

Deplore the loss untimely of her love.

"How plaintively, and oft, she mourns the fate

Of her too tim'rous and unhappy mate.

Hark! Now! the little warblers tune their throats,

Welcoming the morning with their notes.

The mingled melody from every spray

Compires to add new lustre to the day.

All one, and all, doth in the chorus join.

Pleasure how sweet, and concert how divine."

On a portion of an old letter we find some unfinished verses addressed "To Sally," which the youth may have hidden in a musty tome as some stern and pompous client entered the Stockton office.

"Hail, beauteous maid! thy charms inspire

Old age with transports and unwonted fire.

Roving and young, the pride of every Heart,

Nature sure form'd thee with her utmost art.

E'en Nassau's sons, so dazzling bright thy eye,

Revere in silence, and in silence die.

"Sally, of thee I sing: the belle, the toast!

Aurora's self not half thy charms can boast;

Lofty thy look and graceful is thy mien.

Love, God of raptures, in each feature's seen. You ******"

William Paterson was the popular man of his class in college, and during a period of ten years after graduation he retained an active interest in his alma mater. He was the friend and idol of many a struggling youth, his character being singularly warm-hearted and lovable. For Aaron Burr he conceived a remarkable attachment, lasting until death. That merry youth did not hesitate to accept his aid with his essays, and the Burr exercise on dancing, published in Mr. Davis's "Memoirs of Aaron Burr," was in reality the work of his friend William Paterson.

Among the pleasantest features of college life are the friendships formed there. The fraternal feeling engendered and fostered by mingling in a large company of young men of like age and purpose is generally proof against the world's strongest vicissitudes met with in later years. No young man ever turns his back upon the college where he has passed the time which carried him over the bridge of youth to manhood without learning something of the meaning of universal brotherhood. A friendship formed at the College of New Jersey was that of William Paterson and John Macpherson, Jr., who was graduated three years later, in 1766. These two youths could be compared to Nisus and Euryalus, although one lived on long after the other had been pierced by steel as cruel as that of the Volscian horsemen. It is impossible to read the series of letters written by William Paterson to the college-mate he loved so devotedly, without being touched by the perfect picture of affection they disclose. John Macpherson was the eldest son of Captain John Macpherson, the builder of Mount Pleasant, the mansion where Benedict Arnold entertained so lavishly after his marriage to Miss Shippen. The Macpherson family was one of the most prominent in Pennsylvania, and young Macpherson enjoyed all the advantages wealth and position could bestow. This makes the attachment of the two friends all the more remarkable. They corresponded with each other for a period of seven years. The last letter was written by William Paterson, at Raritan, New Jersey, September 15, 1773, and contains characteristic raillery on Macpherson's passion for Miss Rebecca Redman. That fair belle of old Philadelphia could not have returned John Macpherson's love, or else must have been a heartless coquette, for she flits through the recorded pages of the Quaker city's society as one of the most frivolous figures during Sir William Howe's régime. Two years after Paterson penned his last words to his friend-"Do, dear Miss (Miss Redman), suffer your adoring swain to take a ramble into the country for a few days"-the cruel drama of the Revolution was on, and Major John Macpherson had fallen by the side of his chief, General Richard Montgomery, in the assault on Quebec. Of him the historian Bancroft wrote: "In the pathway lay Macpherson, the pure-minded, youthful enthusiast for liberty, as spotless as the new-fallen snow which was his winding-sheet; full of promise for war, lovely in temper, dear to the army, honored by the affection and confidence of his chief."

It is hoped that the Paterson papers will reach all true lovers of our past. As a portrayal of New Jersey colonial life by the pen of a Princeton alumnus they are unique. As a record of the college friendship of two famous Americans the twenty-three letters from William Paterson to John Macpherson are unrivalled.

The earliest exercise of the famous Cliosophic Society preserved at Princeton University bears the date July 2, 1792. William Paterson's "Belle of Princeton" was written twenty years before this time, during one of the most interesting periods of American history. Princeton should be proud of her famous son. His devotion to his college was remarkable and was kept up until the close of an active life. Side by side with his great achievements for his State and the federal government we will place his long-hidden records of early Princeton life. During his last days, in the fall-time of thoughts were often with his college. His path in life had led him to the altitudes and surrounded him with friends, but Princeton and the long-lost college-mate John Macpherson were his dearest memories.

W. Jay Mills.

February, 1903

Part I. A Series of Letters giving much entertaining knowledge of Colonial Life

Written by WILLIAM PATERSON

TO John Macpherson, J R .

1766-1773

"So word by word, and line by line,

The dead man touch'd me from the past,

And all at once it seem'd at last

His living soul was flash'd on mine."

LETTER I.

Contains Pertinent Reflections Study Law

31st Decr., 1766

Dear Johnny.